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bering, a good deal that is of the nature of guldance and warning. For instance, we learn from it how the civilised world has been changed, and our duties, morals, habits, habitations, and connections all altered by the discoveries of a few dozen able men. The world is "full of a number of things," as R. L. Stevenson says, and we have only learnt to make use of a few of these. There seem almost endless possibilities open, but they are only open to those who mean to take advantage of them, who mean to make themselves and do make themselves able to see the things that the ignorant and the lazy miss and always will miss. Our trade rivals have learnt all they knew till a few years ago from us, we can surely afford to take a lesson from our own ancestors, but we must be prepared to strip off prejudice and renounce hollow formulæ. Even if such a sacred institution as a trades-union stands in the way of real progress, it must change or go.

Good work, not sham work; good art, not bad nor even mediocre art; good food, not the bad bread (one of the worst disgraces of this country) and the bad beer, but good bread and good beer; plain, good clothes, not" fashionably cut "shoddy; good news, not party lies and foolish flattery and idle or malicious gossip; real information (which need not be cheap, and cannot be easy, for knowledge is not an easy thing to get, but a hard thing both to win and hold), not chopped-up rubbish and dirty garbage; as much fresh air, and clean water, and out-of-door exercise as we can do with. These are things within our grasp, and we have not got them yet, though we have thousands of things we do not want, or really enjoy at all, but which we are fooled, or fool ourselves, into paying for through the nose. The end of work is to produce useful things, beautiful things, necessary things; but the end of life is not merely work, nor what people look for in exchange for work-riches. Riches without health or security, or the

knowledge of how to use them, are merely a danger, and a daily reproach to an individual. They are also a danger and a daily reproach when unused, ill-used, or wasted to a nation. Health and wisdom are not incompatible with wealth, but worn-out vitality and blind ignorance quite certainly are. Only the strong man armed and healthy of brain can keep his house.

Healthy people look to the future, sick people are content to linger through the day, or ready to sink into oblivion; the mark of a healthy nation is that it looks forward, prepares for the future, learns from the past, gets rid of its parasites, shakes off its social diseases, and walks resolutely in the service of her whom Defoe celebrated as that "Most Serene, Most Invincible, Most Illustrious Princess, REASON," and whom, long before him, Solomon, and the son of Sirach, lauded as the Chief of Things, the very emanation and breath of their God Himself.

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NOTE TO SECOND EDITION

IN issuing a second edition of this little book without a thorough revision, I am by no means unconscious of its defects. However, I believe it will continue to serve my original purpose, which was to supply a concise and inexpensive outline of the Industrial Revolution as a guide to students seeking for the first time the historical basis of modern social and economic problems.

The last chapter, which contains nearly all the controversial matter in the book, has been severely criticised in certain quarters. On one hand, I have been accused of materialism, and on the other of want of knowledge of the real character of the industrial problem.

Now, it is quite easy for comfortable persons with good incomes to decry as materialistic all attempts to secure better wages, better homes, and better conditions of life and labour generally. Recently we have heard the bitter cry of the impoverished clergy for higher salaries; and were one-third of the parsons of England compelled to support their families on a guinea a week and less, as about one-third of the working-men of London and other great cities are, there would be a substantial addition to the ranks of the "materialists." It is true that a man may have plenty to eat, and still be a danger and disgrace to the community; but it is equally true that he cannot be a help and a credit to the community unless he does have plenty to eat. When the

spiritually-minded rich discover the dangers of materialism arising from comfortable circumstances, they may not spend so much of their time trying to prevent a decrease of their share of the national income. The researches of Mr. Booth for London

and Mr. Rowntree for York demonstrate beyond all doubt the fallacies of favourite panaceas of thrift and temperance which are preached without danger to the supremacy of those who possess the earth and its fulness,1

The second criticism of Chapter V. is based upon the statement quoted by Mill, that "the deepest root of the evils and iniquities which fill the industrial world is not competition, but the subjection of labour to capital, and the enormous share which the possessors of the instruments of industry are able to take from the produce." In defence of my position, I may say that in Chapter V. I only attempted an analysis of industrial society as it exists, without going into the historic and economic causes of the maladjustments pointed out. The publication of Mr. Hobson's book on "The Social Problem," shortly after this little work appeared, leads me to believe that the line of research indicated in the last chapter is indeed an important one, and I am glad that Mr. Hobson has given us his clear and vigorous contribution to the subject. While admitting that our present maladjustments are the outcome of the "social form of production and the individual form of appropriation and exchange," I contend that this system wastes more wealth than it contributes to landlords, capitalists, and money-lenders. The statistics are not at present forthcoming to prove this statement, but a few figures will illustrate my point. Mr. Edson Bradley, Vice-President of the Distilling Company of America, recently estimated that between producer and consumer $40,000,000 were annually lost mostly in competitive attempts to secure trade. Upon the combination of the competitors in the distilling business 300 travelling salesmen were discharged, and

1 See also Robertson, "The Fallacy of Saving.”

Sonnenschein.

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a saving of $1,000,000 effected in this one department of "enterprise." The American Wire and Steel Company, formed of competing concerns, dismissed 200 salesmen who had been engaged in "heckling" customers. It is stated that 3,000 salesmen lost their positions through the formation of the American Tobacco Company, and that the Continental Tobacco Company discharged 350 travellers in one day. The (1900) Report of the Executive of the American Travellers' Protective Association stated that probably 350,000 travelling men had lost their positions through the workings of monopolies and trusts, and estimated that the latter saved $6,000,000 daily by limiting advertising and concentrating industries. The recent American Combination of Laundry Machine-Makers discharged 30 per cent. of the employés as unnecessary to the production of all the machines demanded in the market, and effected a saving of $780,000 annually in working expenses. Mr. Gates, of the Wire and Steel Company, stated that his concern saved $500,000 yearly in "cross freights" through combination and organisation of shipping. A prominent railway manager in the United States estimates that $200,000,000 would be saved annually if all railways were worked from one centre. Professor Ely says: "It is useless to attempt any precise estimate, but it may not be an extravagant estimate if we claim that the loss due to competition in the railway business in the United States from the beginning of our railway history to the present time has been sufficient to furnish all the people of the United States with comfortable dwellings, provided all the houses now in the United States should be destroyed." To read this statement along with the recent Report on Tenement Conditions in Chicago, is enough to arouse the most indifferent. The annual waste on railways, advertising, and telegraphs in the United States is estimated at $698,000,000, while the waste

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